With over $94.4 million given to local communities, Desjardins is by far the Quebec organization that has contributed the most to community causes in Quebec. It’s also one of the most generous in Canada. This altruism, however, has gone largely unnoticed. So, in 2020, it was time to let people know just how much Desjardins loved its communities.

The ask was simple, yet daunting: to position Desjardins as the organization that is most caring and supportive of young people in the community, and have it come first in people’s hearts.

Desjardins helps young people shine. So what did we do? Well, we built a 360 campaign around light.

And the only way to kick off such a grand campaign was, of course, at a Habs game at the Bell Centre. To further cement the company’s commitment to young people, a crowd of over 21,000 in-arena and 620,000 at-home hockey fans got to see Desjardins give out scholarships to children who participated in a live contest in the arena. To top it all off, the hockey game ended with the entire arena being lit up by the winning children—a truly magical moment.

And we didn't stop there. The flagship campaign was conceived to maximize reach and utilize the majority of Desjardins’s paid and owned channels.

And so, the evening also kicked off the campaign’s mass awareness strategy. The creatives, visually driven by light and emotionally driven by the message “$50 million a year to help young people shine,” were distributed on social media, TV, online video, and in out-of-home advertising, news media and movie theatres.

In Ontario, Toronto’s underground city and Dundas Square were lit up with impactful videos, extending Desjardins’s message of generosity to English Canada.